1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to rotary compressors and, more particularly, to a variable capacity rotary compressor, which is designed such that a compression operation is executed in either of two compression chambers having different capacities, by an eccentric unit mounted to a rotating shaft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a compressor is installed in a refrigeration system, such as an air conditioner and a refrigerator, which operates to cool air in a given space using a refrigeration cycle. In the refrigeration system, the compressor operates to compress a refrigerant which circulates through a refrigeration circuit. A cooling capacity of the refrigeration system is determined according to a compression capacity of the compressor. Thus, when the compressor is designed to vary a compression capacity thereof as desired, the refrigeration system may be operated under an optimum condition considering several factors, such as a difference between a practical temperature and a predetermined temperature, thus allowing air in a given space to be efficiently cooled, and saving energy.
A variety of compressors are used in the refrigeration system. The compressors are typically classified into two types, which are rotary compressors and reciprocating compressors. The present invention relates to the rotary compressor, which will be described in the following.
The conventional rotary compressor includes a hermetic casing, with a stator and a rotor being installed in the hermetic casing. A rotating shaft penetrates through the rotor. An eccentric cam is integrally provided on an outer surface of the rotating shaft. A roller is provided in a compression chamber to be rotated over the eccentric cam.
The rotary compressor constructed as described above is operated as follows. As the rotating shaft rotates, the eccentric cam and the roller execute eccentric rotation in the compression chamber. At the time, a gas refrigerant is drawn into the compression chamber and then compressed, prior to discharging the compressed refrigerant to an outside of the hermetic casing.
However, the conventional rotary compressor has a problem in that the rotary compressor is fixed in a compression capacity thereof, so that it is impossible to vary the compression capacity according to a difference between an environmental temperature and a preset reference temperature.
In a detailed description, when the environmental temperature is considerably higher than the preset reference temperature, the compressor must be operated in a large capacity compression mode to rapidly lower the environmental temperature. Meanwhile, when the difference between the environmental temperature and the preset reference temperature is not large, the compressor must be operated in a small capacity compression mode so as to save energy. However, it is impossible to change the capacity of the rotary compressor according to the difference between the environmental temperature and the preset reference temperature, so that the conventional rotary compressor does not efficiently cope with a variance in temperature, thus leading to a waste of energy.